“A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.”
- Truman Capote, American writer 1942-1984
Talk is cheap, voicemails are expensive. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to try and figure out how many cold calls I’ve made in my career, so I grabbed a calculator and began pounding out numbers. It’s difficult to get an exact total, but based on an average of 75 calls per week my total was around 40,000 calls.
If part of your daily role involves outbound calling in an effort to solicit new business, I would strongly encourage a study of the most effective voicemail techniques to ensure the best possible result. Industry leader XANT published a great article on this.
My two cents: voicemails are a waste of time. It occurred to me that after making roughly 40,000 calls I could count on two hands the number of times I have received a call back from a truly interested prospect. The fact is, most future customers are not going to return your call, especially if you’re calling into VP-level or C-Suite.
If we look at the stats, eight years ago the average voicemail return rate was 5%, and it continues to fall. Even worse, 15% of the time sales reps spent at work was on leaving voicemails, and that number increases depending on the call volume.
The hard reality: voicemails will more likely be a waste of your precious time than a useful sales endeavor. What really matters in the number of actual conversations you have. Even emails can be far more effective in the long run, and can be used strategically to prepare future customers for your call.
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